Jet disaster averted in Barcelona near-miss

(MENAFN - Arab News) MADRID: A passenger jetliner preparing to leave Barcelona's El Prat airport taxied across a runway where another was about to land forcing the arriving plane to abort its landing and climb sharply to avoid a possible disaster.

Amateur video footage showed the Aerolineas Argentinas Airbus 340 crossing the runway just as the aircraft from Russian airline Utair was making its final approach.

Spanish airport authority AENA said the Russian plane which officials described only as a Boeing circled back and landed safely.

None of the passengers on either plane was hurt.

AENA said it has opened an investigation into what happened. It had no details on how close the planes were at the time of the incident.